It went something like this

Mayhem > Burzum > Varg's ambient albums > Paysage d'Hiver > Ambient in general > DUNGEON SYNTH (fuck yeah)

Had no idea there was so much of this dungeon synth stuff around. Was listening to Mortiis only yesterday, after a long time.

A lot of the early stuff got me into a bunch of King Crimson, Jethro Tull, and Yes' Early stuff.

-Ambient
Mainly from Burzum, so from there I got reqs for Aphex Twin, Tangerine Dream, Lustmord and Brian Eno and I loved pretty much all of it. It's one of my favourite genres now and cos of that I discovered Trip-Hop and most notably one of my favourite acts in the world, Boards of Canada.

-Neo-Folk
Agalloch, obviously. Got the Nebeheimer compilation and took a bunch of guys from there and some other metal acts side projects like ...Of the Wand and the Moon

-Industrial
I don't know if it 100% counts as me getting into it through metal as none of the acts I listen to really are comparable to the likes of Ministry or Godflesh in any obvious ways to me, but then again I wouldn't have even noted the genre if it weren't for Industrial metal so I don't know.

-Drone
Earth, Teeth of the Lions and SUnn O))). Although a lot of the drone I listen to is either Boris's non metal stuff or stuff from the Industrial band Coil which can be considered Drone.

I have discovered and got into a lot of stuff because of connections to metal and metal bands integrating different stuff into their sound. Like Absurder, Agalloch has got me into Neofolk. I really like some of D16, and also some Sol Invictus (who Agalloch cover, and completely do a better version), Arbeit, and I love Corde Oblique's album Volonta d Arte. Like many other people here, metal got me into ambient, mostly do to its association with bands like Neurosis (didn't really get into black metal till later.) I also started making ambient music because of this. I also have discovered some great stuff such as Man's Gin, Deadboy/Dax Riggs and Swans due to their association with metal. I got into some stoner/desert rock stuff because of Kyuss. I also have discovered some psychedelic stuff such as Blaak Heat Shujaa due to their similarities with psychedelic doom metal bands like Naam. I've also checked out Krautrock after hearing metal bands praise it in interviews. Metal is a genre that I got into due to another genre. Punk (including crust) was what started my interest in metal, starting probably with Leftover Crack and I soon discovered Dystopia, which got me into extreme metal.

Metal has only gotten me into Heavier metal, then to death metal, then to brutal death metal. It hasn't opened me to more different genres of sub styles of music, quite the opposite, its made me more closed minded about what I listen to. I mean after you listen to the heaviest, fastest stuff out there nothing else cuts it. everything else is just weak, gay, and irritating and just makes me crave some real music. Once death metal gets in your blood its always there and nothing else cuts it. If you do start listening to other styles and genres or even stop listening to DM all together then I question whether or not you had the heart for it the first place. Just my opinion though.

Yeah, some neofolk shit like Empyrium, and also I think it probably led me to check out 80s hardcore like Bad Brains and Black Flag and shit, though I'm sure I'd heard some of that before.

I've never made my mind up about anything and stuck to it my whole life; my tastes and interests and even passions always eventually change. I think it's just your personality that causes you to only like one thing. I'm not hating on you at all; I'm just saying that while it's fine to say you're close-minded about your music, your love of death metal reminds me of religious devotion, and I don't think many people apply that kind of loyalty to music.

Try hard, too much?

Death metal is pretty lame. Hardcore is way tougher then just about all death metal bands. I'm not intimidated by a bunch of 35 year olds in sweat pants.

To answer the question though:

Punk/hardcore: Wouldn't have gotten into it unless I hadn't known my one friend but I was into crossover stuff and early grindcore so it was an easy transition.

Noise/Power electronics: The abrasive nature of extreme metal made me seek something harsher.

I am pretty region specific too. I got into Finnish hardcore because of Finnish death metal and I like a lot of Japanese noise artists because of all the awesome bands from Japan.

If you're listening to music to be intimitated, you're pretty fucking stupid.

Music can be extremely intimidating but I don't download an artist and say "Wow I hope I'm intimidated by this". Its more like "Wow this is fucking terrifying/intimidating but soooooo awesome".

Next time think before you post okay hun? Thanks.

Not everyone listens to music to find only the heaviest and most extreme music, and death metal being "real music" compared to other "softer" stuff is just laughable. Lots of people listen to DM and also tons of other stuff. Variety is the spice of life.

Next time don't be a moron, I was talking in general, not my problem if you took it personally.

Definitely this. Been listening to mostly ambient/noise because of Sun 0))) and the like. It's pretty much all I've been listening to lately.

Like I said before it was only my opinion, if I rubbed anyone the wrong way or offended you with my opinion then my sincerest apologies. I'm working on accepting the fact that not everyone sees things the same way I do. It's tough but I'm trying.

Ambient, noise, fusion, a little bit of folk music.

Metal got me into Neofolk.

The progress of my listening tastes for the past year/year and a half.

Entombed/Dismember - Nails/Trap Them - Fugazi - Defeater's acoustic tracks - Fleet Foxes/The Low Anthem

There's logic there somewhere...

Interesting patterns here. A lot of the same answers. Punk and 70's hard rock make a lot of sense because of the way a lot of metal is rooted in these genres. Ambient makes a lot of sense too because of the huge amount of crossover with black metal. Neofolk is a lot more common than I thought it would be, but I suppose (along with probably Industrial, Goth/Deathrock, etc.) that people who get into metal have a tendency to explore the other underground genres to some extent.

My answers are much the same, 70's hard rock, especially of the proto-metal variety (Dust, Wishbone Ash), Neofolk, Punk, and Deathrock. Metal also got me into Visual Kei, at least the heavier side of it. Not really a proper genre, but some of the best Japanese metal bands dabbled in or completely fell in with this movement in the 80's and early 90's, and there are even a few particularly good ones out there today.

Neofolk, industrial, crust punk, noise and ambient
Guess you could say I got into classical music because of metal too

You're not being clear. Do you like death metal or not?

i kinda understand you there, i was like that in a way for a while. I started out on metallica after gh came out, and thats literally all i listened to for all of 8th grade, come freshmen year, i started lsitening to dethklok, amon amarth, windir, enslaved, bahory, satanic warmaster, ect. the only non metal band i really listened to was pink floyd probably, but i couldnt stand metallica for a while. then towards the end of my sophmore year, i started listening to fen, and more of that neo folk stuff, and i went back to yngwie malmsteins neo clasical and went into classical. then during junior year I really just branched out completely, listrening to boris helped with hat alot gettiong me into sludge, drone, j-pop, noise, and that all led to scream-o, grindcore, punk, and even some pysch folk, on top of neo-folk, calssical, and all the metal i already listened to. You may eventually branch out like i did is what im saying

That guy's gonna shit his pants when he hears Putrefaction in Progress; I assume a similar natural evacuation of his bowels will occur when he checks out Prurient and Merzbow.

Is it just me or does this sound like Juggalo rhetoric?

Metal took me to strange shores but always led back to metal.

lol

He listens to stuff other than metal. What a poser, a traitor to the metalhead family

Southern-sounding stuff got me into Lynyrd Skynyrd, and then country music. I probably got into blues because of metal partially, as well - and rock n' roll. I mean, it has always lead me into more metal, but the surrounding genres as well. That being said, I started out listening more to rock than metal, so I dunno - maybe I came full circle?

I've also gained an interest in dungeon synth, but it hasn't really taken for me yet, as I don't really know where - outside of Mortiis - to go.

^ This

I've listened to so many genres over the years, from '20 blues to goa-trance to Elvis to (insert random word here)-core, but after a while I always get sick of it and pop in some metal. There's nothing like home.

There is a dungeon synth website under http://dungeonsynth.blogspot.de . Also, this thread: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=85127

I recommend Wongraven for starters. I don't know much about the genre myself outside of Mortiis and Wongraven, but I have some interest in it because I like Summoning so much, which is basically dungeon synth + guitars + drum machine.

I've definitely gotten into some Post-Rock, Shoegaze, Neo-Folk, Ambient, Industrial, etc. thanks to Metal, and had a period where I was big into Hardcore/Crust/Grind/Powerviolence (still listen to some of that along with, more frequently now, REAL Screamo, Post-Hardcore, Post-Punk semi-regularly). I was also already into Prog Rock, Psychedelia, and some classic Rock before getting into Metal (before getting into Black Sabbath and going from there my favorite artists were Led Zeppelin, Bowie, Pink Floyd, and The Beatles).

It has gotten me into more traditional folk rock and modern folk pop and related styles, traditional progressive rock, and post-rock/post-metal ambient/shoegaze stuff. It has also given me a (very) small interest in classical music and jazz.

Well I think getting into the gathering is what led me to stuff outside of metal. Heard about shoegaze because of their cover of slowdive's "when the sun hits", and I'm now a massive shoegaze fan, and I got into ambient from them too, because of their cover of a dead can dance song. I never got into ambient through Burzum or anything, more through shoegaze and dead can dance. Lovesliescrushing were a shoegaze band I saw on the rec forum, and their ambient/drone tendencies got me into a lot of that sort of stuff. Then a bit of trip-hop from the ambient stuff. I'm fairly sure if it wasn't for The Gathering, my music tastes would now be a lot more "trve".

Obviously because of the closely linked nature of death metal and grindcore, I'm heavily into grindcore, and a little bit of punk.

I started off my metal listening with black metal, and went backwards through time/heaviness, through thrash, then heavy, and then I got into late 60s/70's rock like pink floyd, deep purple, the doors, rainbow etc through that influence, and lately through that into early to mid 60's stuff like velvet underground (more to do with shoegaze than metal though), the beatles, bob dylan etc

Noise was less about metal, more wondering what the fuck a genre called "noise" would sound like, and I always had a fascination with classical music, which may or may not have been accentuated by the influence in some metal.

Death metal blows hardcore out of the water any day of the week, but that's just my opinion.

Kind of the opposite, I got into Trash because of suicidal tendencies.

After I got into metal I started checking out and enjoying some classical, ambient, folk, and some punk. The classical, ambient, and folk music came from Black and Folk Metal and the punk came from Thrash.

Classical music, because of metal's affinity to it,
some old Hardcore Punk because of it's influence on 80s Metal,
plenty of 60s and 70s Rock
and Celtic Folk.

Folk Metal bands such as Cruachan got me into Celtic music.

Metal has gotten me into more metal. The progression went something like this:Black Sabbath-Slayer-Cannibal Corpse-Nile

The Dauði Baldrs and Hliðskjálf albums from Burzum got me into dark ambient music, and Haggard got me into symphonic and classical music. Other then that... well... other metal genres?